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Snakes & Bears, oh my!!!

Well, I've had my hammock just about a month now and this weekend I headed off to Elizabethtown, NC to the Boy Scout camp. I was the waterfront director at camp for the cub-scouts. Got to camp and set up out behind the cabin the rest of the girl staff were staying in. Had my pick of sites because I'm the only one camping. Picked my two trees and hung my hammock with the brand spanking new hitchcraft thingys. They work great, by the way. Gotta get some straps now. The weekend went well. I had just finished an under quilt (summer weight) that I was trying out too. First night, was sort of hot. Temps were like 55. Sat day temps were HOT. Like close to 90 and humid and Sat night I guess I was sunburned because I was chilly until I got into my hammock, then I was out for the night. Oh, The Snakes and bears part... Had a whole lot of camping parents and scouts reporting many bear sightings, but none confirmed. I saw one Sat night that turned out to be a burnt log!! The snakes on the other hand, were real. Two timber rattlers killed Sat!!! Several moccasins killed just before I arrived. I'm just happy I'm hanging!!!

nope!!! the only things feeding out there were the skeeters!!! And they were flat out awful!! After I got into my hammock, I could hear them buzzzzzing trying to find a spot to get in the hammock with me. While setting up my camp, they swarmed me!! Hey does anyone know if you can safely spray deet on a Clark??? (not the tarp) I don't want to really spray the hammock because the skeeters didn't bite me at all once I got inside it. I just want to spray around/near so that I'm not eaten alive before I can get in it.

Timber rattlers are disappearing fast, and they are relatively docile, compared to their big Eastern Diamondback cousins. Moccasins are neither of those things... not disappearing and not docile at all!

This is what we ran into this weekend!

Did a little 13 mile backpacking trip with our older scouts. We were walking on the trail on Saturday morning whith our senior patrol leader on point. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw this!

Here is a closer look.

He was 5 or 6 years old. He would not move off the trail. I tried everything I could to get him to move. Nothing worked until I tossed a small piece of rotten wood that rolled over him. (Didn't want to hurt him, just move him!) He rolled off the trail and started rattling. Second piece of rotten wood tossed got him down the hill a safe distance. He was rattling the whole time as we walked by.

This was my first experience with a rattlesnake. Definitely a distinctive rattle, but much softer rattle than I expected. To many movies I guess. Great experience for both myself and the other scouts with me.

Timber rattlers are disappearing fast, and they are relatively docile, compared to their big Eastern Diamondback cousins.

All of the scouts have no control over the killing of the snakes, we're on a Scout Camp Grounds and it's run by a Ranger that lives on the property. If a poisenous snake is in the area where cub scouts will be, then it's his job to kill it. He did say he would be stuffing this one. It had the very prominate diamond pattern on it's back and the Ranger said 9 rows of rattlers (so about 9 years old, right??) The Ranger called it a Timber and I saw that one, didn't see the other one, so I'm not sure which type of rattler it was. It was threating one of the female staff when it was discovered. (she heard it !! )

With the bears, I've seen their tracks here at this scout camp. A momma bear with cub (large tracks with little tracks next to them) Haven't seen the bears though!!

on edit: just did some research, what I saw and the Ranger called a Timber, was a diamondback!!!